Heavy flooding shuts schools in Athens

ATHENS: Heavy flooding forced schools to close across Athens on Friday, triggered a false earthquake warning, caused widespread damage and left an elderly shepherd dead, officials said.

The second storm to pummel Greece in a week struck nationwide on Thursday, lashing the greater Athens area, the Ionian islands and the northern peninsula of Halkidiki.

Authorities said schools and most public services across the capital would be closed Friday as a precaution and shut down one of the capital’s main motorways overnight. On Thursday, the weather disruption threw off sensors at the Athens observatory, triggering the erroneous report of a 5-magnitude earthquake near the Aegean island of Naxos before a correction was issued.

"We are in a phase of climatic crisis, new infrastructure is needed," Efthymios Lekkas, professor of disaster management at the University of Athens, told Skai TV.